Nobody comes to Tasmania and wishes they'd gone somewhere else. That's not a marketing line, that's just what happens.
Tasmania tours deliver wilderness so intact it covers 42% of the island in national parks and World Heritage areas. Food and wine that quietly embarrasses the mainland. And wildlife that wanders into your campsite uninvited (the wombats have decided the tent pegs are theirs now).
Tasmania is a small island state about 240km off the southern tip of Australia, separated from the mainland by the Bass Strait. The main island covers 64,519 km² with a population of around 533,000. Small population, enormous wilderness. The maths works out well for visitors.
The wildlife situation
The Tasmanian devil is real. It is as unhinged as advertised. Hearing one at night is something you won't forget.
Quolls, pademelons, little penguins on actual beaches, platypus in actual rivers. The wildlife here is less skittish than anywhere on the mainland because there are simply fewer people hassling it.
Start in Hobart (seriously, give it three days)
Over 40% of Tasmania's population lives in the greater Hobart area, and it shows. The city punches well above its size.
MONA is built into a sandstone cliff on the Derwent River. One of the most genuinely strange museums in the country, with the kind of art collection most galleries wouldn't touch. That's exactly why it works.
Salamanca Market on Saturday mornings is chaotic in the good way. The food scene is serious because the producers supplying it are serious. Give Hobart three days. You'll use them.
Cradle Mountain and the northwest
World Heritage-listed, properly alpine, and home to the Overland Track: a 65km multi-day hike considered one of the best in the world.
Day walks in the park are spectacular on their own. If you want more, try canyoning, quad biking, or horse riding through the surrounding wilderness. Lake St Clair sits at the southern end of the same national park and is equally worth your time.
The east coast: Bay of Fires and Freycinet
Bay of Fires has white sand, water so clear it looks like someone turned the saturation up, and those orange lichen-covered granite boulders that make every photo look edited. It wasn't.
The name comes from the fires the Palawa people lit along the shore, spotted by early European sailors. Walk the coast, camp on the beach, swim until you lose track of time.
Freycinet Peninsula is pink granite mountains meeting white sand beaches, with Wineglass Bay sitting in the middle of it. The lookout walk takes 45 minutes and the view delivers. Sea kayaking with dolphins around the peninsula is one of the best things you can do in Tasmania and most people skip it.
Don't skip it.
The west coast: properly raw
Queenstown's acid-orange hills from a century of copper mining look like another planet. The Franklin River is one of the last wild rivers in the southern hemisphere.
Mole Creek Caves, the Huon Valley, Gordon River cruises through ancient Huon pine rainforest out of Strahan. Fewer tourists. Better for it.
How to do Tasmania
Tours can be tailored to what you actually want. A focused 3-day trip, a 5-day option with a vehicle included, or a full two-week circuit. The East Coast Tasmania tour is one of the most popular: Bay of Fires, Freycinet, Wineglass Bay, and wildlife encounters along the way.
Other things worth adding: wine tours through the Tamar Valley and Coal River regions, Tasmania Zoo, cycling routes around the island, little penguin colonies on Bruny Island, and whale watching eco-cruises.
A campervan or hire car gives you maximum flexibility. Guided tours handle the logistics if you'd rather leave the planning to someone else.
Tassie fits naturally into a broader Australia trip, pairing well with Melbourne as a starting point. Check the Australia deals page for anything running, or talk to our team to build your itinerary.
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